ch--The graceful hills of Spain--Espluga--Francisco
equal to occasion--Beseiged--Donkeys versus carriage--Interesting old
town--Decadence--Singular woman--Loretta's escort--Strange
story--Unconscious charm--What happened one Sunday evening--Caro--"The
right man never came"--Comes now--How she was betrothed--Primitive
conveyance--Making the best of it--Wine-pressers--Loving cup--Nectar of
the gods--Fair exchange--Rough drive--Scene of Loretta's adventures 405

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE RUINS OF POBLET.

A dream-world--Ruins--Chapel of St. George--Archways and Gothic
windows--Atmosphere of the Middle Ages--Convent doorway--Summons but no
response--Door opens at last--Comfortable looking woman--Ready
invention--Confusion worse confounded--True version--Francisco painfully
direct--Guardian gets worst of it--Picturesque decay--Gothic
cloisters--Visions of beauty--Rare wilderness--King Martin the
Humble--Bacchanalian days--When the monks quaffed Malvoisie--Simple
grandeur of the church--Philip Duke of Wharton--Cistercian
monastery--History of Poblet the monk--Monastery becomes
celebrated--Tombs of the kings of Aragon--Guardian sceptical--Paradise
or wilderness--Monks all-powerful--Escorial of Aragon--The great
traveller--Changing for the worst--Upholding the kingly power--Time
rolls on--Downfall--Attacked and destroyed--Infuriated mob--Fictitious
treasures--Fiendish act--Massacre--Ruined monastery--Blood-red
sunset--Superstition--End of 1835 418

CHAPTER XXIX.

LORENZO.

Day visions--All passes away--End of the feast--Francisco gathers up the
fragments--Ghosts of the past--Outside the monastery--Oasis in a
desert--After the vintage--Francisco gleans--Guilty conscience--Custom
of country--Dessert--Primitive watering-place--Off to the fair--Groans
and lamentations--Sagacious animal--Cause of sorrows--Rage and
anger--Donkey listens and understands--A hard life--Washing a
luxury--Charity bestowed--Deserted settlement--Quaint interior--Back to
the monastery--Invidious comparisons--A promise--Good-bye to
Poblet--Troubled sea again--Suffering driver--Atonement for sins--Earns
paradise--Wine-pressers again--Rich stores--Good Samaritans--Quaint old
town--Bygone prosperity--Lorenzo--Marriage made in heaven--House
inspected--On the bridge--At the station--Kindly offer--Glorious
sunset--Loretta's good-bye--"What shall it be?"--Flying moments--As the
train rolls off.